This a post from an HP Touchpad tablet.
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Microsoft Songsmith
Microsoft Songsmith is an interesting, free-to-teachers tool that allows for easy songwriting, even while knowing little or nothing about songwriting. The program takes a style template, listens to you sing into a microphone, and makes up a musical accompaniment that is surprisingly decent. Great for music classes, but could be useful in a lot of …
A quick overview of movie copyright in educational settings.
From the American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/ala/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet07.cfm The seven conditions listed for video use in educational settings are good to know when planning to show a film to a group.
Google Body
You will need an advanced browser, such as the latest Google Chrome or Firefox 4 beta, but the Google Body site is well worth a visit to see a nicely done 3D rendering of the human body. You can isolate body systems, identify any part of the body, and remove layers. Great for biology or …
DreamSpark
All district students are eligible to download all of Microsoft’s development tools–software worth tens of thousands of dollars–through Microsoft’s DreamSpark website. They will need their Clark Co. email address in order to validate their student status. http://www.dreamspark.com
Google Art Project
Google has created a great resource for art, humanities, or history classes/lessons. Using the same technology used in Google Maps’ 3D street view, Google teamed up with some of the most well-known art museums in the world to make virtual tours accessible through a web browser. Additionally, thousands of works have been scanned at incredibly …
Can we teach students how to learn about learning?
An interesting project on teaching metacognition here. I am particularly intrigued by the idea of allowing students eliminate three multiple choice questions, provided they explain why those 3 were chosen.
A technological plateau?
Despite the endless parade of new devices, economist Tyler Cowen, co-blogger of the popular “Marginal Revolution” econ-blog, says in a new short work, “The Great Stagnation,”that we have reached a technological plateau, and that our centuries-long run of constant economic progress is slowing down now that the “low hanging fruit” of the US has all …
Internet Safety
Having just utilized their materials in a training, I have to give a recommendation to NetSmartz.org, a website/program developed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The program is divided into multiple parts depending on the target audience with the material adjusted accordingly. The NetSmartz Teens “Tween” presentation which I have used was …
Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome, a browser-based operating system, could be a very interesting development for schools looking towards 1:1 initiatives. Using inexpensive hardware, and leveraging the cloud for storage, costs for providing hardware capable of consumption and production of content could decrease significantly. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft and Apple, both of whom have …